This invention generally pertains to fire suppression systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a fire suppression system for a building roof.
The invention is particularly applicable to fire suppression systems for wood shake, or shingle roofs. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that the invention has broader application and may also be adapted for use in many other fire suppression environments.
Wood shakes and shingles are frequently used as roofing materials due to their attractive appearance. Usually such shakes or shingles are made of untreated cedar which dries out and, becomes extremely flammable a few years after installation. Even when such shakes are treated with a fire suppressant chemical before installation, the shakes still dry out in a few years and become quite flammable. Such roofs in the drier southwestern and western areas of the United States are frequently dangerous fire hazards.
Wood shake roofs used on multi-unit residential dwellings in the dry regions of the sunbelt, such as in southern California, where numerous brush fires burn every year, are particularly dangerous. For example, in April, 1982 a 364 unit apartment complex in Anaheim, Ca. was destroyed by fire after a spark generated from lightning that struck a major electrical transformer started the cedar shake roofs of the apartment complex on fire. The complex had burned to the ground by the time the fire department arrived. Another fire related disaster occured in Dallas in March of 1983. A large apartment complex having over 850 units was partially destroyed by fire when a faulty wiring system shorted out in the ceiling joists of one of the buildings and the sparks ignited the wood shingled roof. The flames spread quickly to all the roofs of the apartment complex and by the time the fire department arrived, 200 units of the complex had burned to the ground. There were also numerous injuries to firefighters and tenants, luckily, none were life threatening.
While several fire suppression systems are known for buildings and some chemical fire retardant treatment processes are known for wood shake roofs, none of these has been found to be entirely satisfactory in preventing the ignition and burning of wood shake or shingle roofs.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved fire suppression system for wood shake and shingle roofs which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.